By The flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, has defended his pledge to provide incentives for churches and faith-based organizations (FBOs). Dr. Bawumia made this commitment during a meeting with the clergy as part of his tour of the Bono East Region.
This announcement has sparked varied responses on both social and traditional media platforms. However, during a similar engagement in the North East Region, the Vice President reaffirmed his promise, stating that it is a logical course of action.
“Look at the number of hospitals the churches have built, look at the number of universities the churches have built and the faith-based organization have built…Can you imagine, just take a thought for a moment that you wake up tomorrow and all the schools and universities the churches have built disappear? How will Ghana be like?” Dr. Bawumia noted.
He expressed that Ghana would suffer significant losses if such a situation were to occur.
“Ghana will collapse. Isn’t it? We will not survive in this sort of situation because there will be chaos” he added
He took the opportunity to clarify that the commitment is not to directly pay churches but to offer them incentives.
Dr. Bawumia questioned why there is support for incentives provided to international development partners but not to local development partners like churches and faith-based organizations.
“When we talk about our external development partners, we have given them all sorts of exemptions. But when we talk about our internal development partners like the Churches and faith-based institutions, we don’t give them any exemptions but they do more in terms of development than many more of our external development partners,” he noted.
Dr. Bawumia also emphasized the potential methods through which churches could receive incentives.
“We should do more in the area of incentives such as tax exemptions on import duties when you are coming to build the hospitals or schools, to support the churches and other faith-based organizations because they are supporting government,” Dr. Bawumia explained.
